


you've got a way with the light.

by porcelainsimplicity



Series: fine on the outside. [2]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Somebody Lives/Not Everybody Dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-14 22:11:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9205313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcelainsimplicity/pseuds/porcelainsimplicity
Summary: Chirrut sensed it the moment he arrived on base.  He told Cassian that someone strong with the Force had arrived before he'd even gotten off his ship.  It wasn't until after the Death Star had been destroyed and people around the base started whispering about whether or not Luke Skywalker was a Jedi that Cassian had believed him.  Chirrut laughed away the thought that the boy was a Jedi though; his powers were strong, of that there was no doubt, but he had very little idea on how to wield them.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heyemily101](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyemily101/gifts).



> special thanks to [heyemily101](http://archiveofourown.org/users/heyemily101) for giving me this prompt and forcing me to write out my if he had survived chirrut & luke would be force bros. headcanon.
> 
> and that's what this is folks. it's a companion piece to [while the rest of me is waking up.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9141949) and there's probably some stuff in that one (which is cassian/jyn) that might make some of this make more sense. i fully admit that i am far better at writing AUs than writing canon stuff so if this sucks, and i fully admit that it might, i sincerely apologize. and there's repetition in this, just an fyi before you start reading if you hate that sort of thing. sorry.

_I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

Chirrut sensed it the moment he arrived on base. He told Cassian that someone strong with the Force had arrived before he'd even gotten off his ship. It wasn't until after the Death Star had been destroyed and people around the base started whispering about whether or not Luke Skywalker was a Jedi that Cassian had believed him. Chirrut laughed away the thought that the boy was a Jedi though; his powers were strong, of that there was no doubt, but he had very little idea on how to wield them.

As Chirrut explained to anyone who would listen, the Force surrounded and moved through everything, but just because you could feel it did not mean you knew how to wield it.

Still, something told Chirrut that there was something special about this Luke Skywalker. 

There was no doubt in his mind that if there had been someone around to train the boy that the boy could have become a Jedi. He hadn't felt the Force that strongly in one person in a very long time. But thanks to the Empire, there was no one left to train him, no one left to show him how to wield the Force. He himself could only sense the Force, not wield it, so he would be of no help to the boy. 

But there must be a reason why the boy was so strong in the Force. There had to be.

All was as the Force willed it. _I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

 

 

He was sitting on top of a crate full of supplies when Cassian came up to him, and Chirrut could sense the glee coming off him in waves.

“Skywalker has a lightsaber clipped to his belt.”

The boy had a lightsaber. 

There were not many things that Chirrut had ever desired to actually see, but one of them was a lightsaber. 

“Are you certain it's a lightsaber?”

“I've seen lightsabers before, Chirrut. They've been in several holos I've had to watch for research for missions,” Cassian said. “I'm positive it's a lightsaber.”

“Fascinating,” Chirrut replied. “Still, a lightsaber does not make a Jedi. Having a lightsaber and knowing how to use one are two entirely different things.”

“Understood. But still, he has one.”

“I wonder where he got it from,” Chirrut said, trying to hone in on it.

“I don't know, but Bodhi told me he seems to be really protective of it.”

“Yes, of course he is,” Chirrut said, his mind becoming clear. “It was his father's.”

Cassian looked over at him. “You know, some day you're really going to have to tell me how you can do that.”

“I have already told you. It is the Force that tells me.”

“Well, the Force never tells me anything.”

“It does. You just don't hear it.”

“Sure, Chirrut. Sure.” 

Cassian walked away and Chirrut let his eyes close, imagining a man standing in front of him with a lightsaber, its blue blade glowing in the darkness. Skywalker's lightsaber was blue, of that he was certain. 

But why did the boy have a lightsaber when he could not use the Force enough to wield it? Perhaps the answer would come to him in time.

All was as the Force willed it. _I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

 

 

It wasn't long until Skywalker sought him out. Chirrut had never hidden his ability to sense the Force from anyone and he knew that the boy was certain to hear about it. Still, Chirrut did not make himself easy to be found. Too many people still approached him, curious to know the stories of Scarif, curious to know how he'd gotten to the master switch and lived to tell the tale. He could see the hero worship in their eyes without seeing anything but darkness, and it made him distinctly uncomfortable. 

They had no idea what he'd been through on Scarif, what he'd done to survive. None of it made him a hero.

All was as the Force willed it. _I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

It took Skywalker three standard months to find him. Between being sent on missions and attending to his other duties on base, he had had little time to search for Chirrut, and that had been perfectly fine with Chirrut. It had given him time to meditate on the Force, to discover what it was the boy was seeking from him. When the boy finally did approach him, Chirrut laughed.

“Took you long enough, Luke.”

“How did you know it was me?” Luke asked, confusion in his voice.

“The Force,” Chirrut replied. “It is stronger with you than it is with anyone else on this base. You are easy to spot despite not being easy to see.”

To say Luke was fascinated would be an understatement. The boy started asking questions at a rapid-fire pace, about the Force, about the Jedi, about Chirrut himself. Chirrut held up a hand after the tenth question and Luke laughed nervously.

“Sorry, I just don't have anyone else to talk to about this.”

“It is alright, but I can only answer one question at a time so pick which one you would like answered first.”

Before the boy could respond, someone shouted his name across the room and Chirrut turned to him with a smile. “I see that duty calls, Lieutenant Skywalker. We shall resume this some other day.”

Chirrut listened to the boy's grumbled goodbye and then grinned when a few moments later he heard, “Hey! Who told you I was a lieutenant?”

“The Force,” Chirrut answered, and he could feel the boy's smile all the way across the room.

The boy had several questions that Chirrut had not anticipated, wanted to know several things that Chirrut knew he could not answer. But, now that he knew the questions, he would meditate on them and see what the Force told him. If the Force wished for him to answer them, it would let him know what to say.

All was as the Force willed it. _I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

 

 

It became easier for Luke to find him, though not by Chirrut's doing. Chirrut would sit in the oddest of places and it wouldn't be long before the boy would be walking up to him, sitting down next to him and asking a question or two before he was called back into duty. Eventually Luke was finding him every day that he was on the base, and Chirrut was happily passing along his knowledge of the Force to someone who seemed so open to receiving it.

Luke never asked about Scarif. For that, Chirrut was eternally grateful.

One day, Chirrut decided to turn the tables on the boy and ask him some questions of his own. He asked about his life on Tatooine, about his aunt and uncle, about Ben Kenobi. He felt a tremor go through him when Luke told him what Kenobi had told of his father, and Chirrut made a mental note to meditate on that later that evening. Something about the story that the old Jedi had told the boy was not right.

Then Chirrut asked if he could touch his lightsaber, and Luke immediately said yes. He unclipped it from his belt and put it into Chirrut's hand, and Chirrut immediately felt the power of the Force that flowed through it, the power of the Kyber that he had protected for so long at the temple. 

“You're grinning,” Luke said.

“I have always desired to see a lightsaber,” Chirrut said, rolling it around in his hands. “It is lighter than I expected one to be.”

“I've been trying to practice with it,” Luke said. “There's this training remote that Ben had that I use. I just wish that he was still here to teach me.”

And that's when it occurred to Chirrut that they weren't alone, not really. “He is still here. Can you not feel him?”

“What are you talking about? I watched him die. He's gone.”

“But you have heard him speak to you since, have you not?” Chirrut asked, presenting the lightsaber back to him. “Was it not him who told you to use the Force to destroy the Death Star?”

“How do you know that?” Luke had asked, only to be called away before Chirrut could answer. 

His answer would have been simple and probably frustrating anyway.

All was as the Force willed it. _I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

 

 

All was as the Force willed it. _I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

The Empire had come to Hoth and when they relocated to their new base, Luke did not come with them. At first Chirrut told himself that the boy was on another mission and would be returning soon, but when he did not, he voiced his worry to Cassian.

“The fleet is in scatter protocol, Chirrut. It might be a long time before you see Luke again.”

After hearing Cassian's words, Chirrut immediately returned to his quarters and began to meditate, trying to focus in on where the boy was and if he was alright. Instead of keying in on the boy's location, he began to hear a voice speaking to him, thanking him for guiding Luke when he was no longer there to do so. Chirrut knew without asking that this was the voice of Ben Kenobi, and did his best to respond. 

All was as the Force willed it. _I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

After the first time he heard Kenobi's voice speak to him, Chirrut began to hear it more often. Kenobi was always offering friendly insight on Chirrut's spiritual questions of the day, and never ended their conversations without telling Chirrut that Luke was with someone who could train him, leaving Chirrut more curious than he'd been since he was a child.

Were there really still Jedi out there?

Cassian came up to Chirrut one day when he was sitting with Baze in one of the hangars. “We're going on a ship later to one of the medical frigates. They're actually giving Jyn and I some orders to carry out, and Chirrut, I figured you would want to see Luke.”

“Luke? He is on a medical frigate?” Chirrut closed his eyes and concentrated on the Force, trying to determine how injured the boy was. “What happened to him?”

“He was injured in Cloud City,” Cassian said. “That's all I know. Ship leaves in three hours if you want to go.”

“Someone must stay here with Bodhi,” Chirrut said after a moment. “I will speak with him again when he returns to base.”

“I can stay with him, Chirrut,” Baze said next to him. “Go and find out how the boy is. I know it's been troubling you.”

Baze put a hand on his shoulder and Chirrut heard Kenobi's voice in his head, telling him to seek out the boy. “Alright then. I will go.”

All was as the Force willed it. _I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

 

 

“And that's when he told me that he was my father.”

Chirrut was listening patiently as Luke slowly told him the story of his confrontation with Darth Vader in Cloud City, and as soon as that sentence was spoken, Chirrut's meditations on the subject of the boy's father suddenly made sense. 

“Ever since you first told me the story Kenobi told you of your father, I have been meditating on it,” he said, knowing that Luke was hanging on his every word. “Something seemed off to me from the moment I heard the words, and whenever I prayed I was even more confused. Everything I saw had been dark and cloudy and murky, but in the middle there was still a shining bit of light. He may seem lost to you now, Luke, but I do not feel he will be lost forever.”

“You think there is still good in him,” Luke said after a moment, surprise in his voice. “Chirrut, he's _Darth Vader._ ”

“But he was once Anakin Skywalker,” Chirrut pointed out. “And Anakin Skywalker still exists somewhere inside of him. I'm sure of it.”

“I've believed everything you've said, Chirrut,” Luke started. “Because everything you've told me has felt right. But this? I'm not sure about this. I'm not even sure he was telling me the truth. I think he could have been lying.”

“Meditate upon it,” Chirrut said. “You will come to see what I see.”

“Why are you so certain of this?”

“Because all is as the Force wills it. I am one with the Force and the Force is with me. It would not show me a lie. I refuse to believe that.”

“Alright, Chirrut, but I still don't know.”

“You will understand in time, Luke,” Chirrut said, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. “Of that I have no doubt.”

Chirrut spent three days with Luke on the frigate until Cassian and Jyn were finished with their orders and it was time to return to the base. Chirrut instinctively knew he would not see Luke for a long time but also knew this would not be the last time they saw one another.

All was as the Force willed it. _I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

 

 

Chirrut may have been on a base on a planet on the other side of the galaxy when it happened, but he felt the restoration of balance to the Force as though a dark cloud had dissipated and the light of the sun now poured through. And despite having absolutely no evidence to show for it, he knew Luke was behind it. News of the victory of the Battle of Endor and the destruction of the second Death Star came through not long after, followed quickly by confirmation of the deaths of both the Emperor and Darth Vader. 

Chirrut allowed himself a moment's meditation on that news, and the Force told him that Anakin Skywalker had been redeemed. 

All was as the Force willed it. _I am one with the Force and the Force is with me._

It was several days before Chirrut felt Luke's presence again, and only a few hours more until he felt Luke come sit down on the crate next to him. They didn't say anything at first, then Luke handed Chirrut his new lightsaber and asked him what color it was. Chirrut rolled the lightsaber in his hands, and an image of a man that he knew was Luke came into his mind, green lightsaber glowing in his hand. 

“It is green.”

“How can you do that?”

“As I have told you many times, it is the Force.”

Luke sighed heavily. “You were right, Chirrut. He was my father and there was good in him and I couldn't save him.”

“But you did,” Chirrut said seriously. “He did not die as Darth Vader but as Anakin Skywalker. I can think of no better way of saving him. He dabbled in the dark for so long, but Luke, you've got a way with the light. You showed him the way back to it.”

“You really think?”

“I think you need only to ask him. Meditate on it and you will get your answer.”

“I can see him, you know? Him and Ben and Yoda, I can see them all. I can have conversations with them. No one else can seem to do that.”

Chirrut smiled. “I have heard your Ben Kenobi's voice. He kept me company while you were away training.”

“You've talked with Ben?” Luke's voice was full of excitement. “Maybe that means one day you can talk with Yoda and my father too.”

“Perhaps,” Chirrut said. “But I suspect the only person your father is going to want to talk to for awhile is you. Or your sister.”

Chirrut didn't need eyes to know that Luke's jaw had dropped. “How did you know I have a sister? I haven't gotten to that part yet!”

“I have known that Leia is your sister for some time,” Chirrut said, laughing. “The Force moves strongly with her as well, though she does not choose to wield it. She could, if she wanted to, but I sense she does not.”

“You're always full of surprises, Chirrut,” Luke said, his voice incredulous. “I can't believe you didn't tell me Leia was my sister.”

“Would you have believed me? Don't worry, I won't tell a soul that Leia is your twin. And I certainly won't tell anyone who your father was. Those are secrets that are best left for the two of you to decide upon.”

Luke fell silent for a few minutes, then turned towards Chirrut with a smile that Chirrut could feel. “I joined this rebellion because the Empire took away the only family I knew. Now this rebellion has given me family that I will always treasure. And you are part of that, Chirrut. You are a dear friend.”

“As are you, Luke,” Chirrut said, looking in the direction of the mess hall as Baze came into view. “Just don't tell him that. He's very protective.”

Luke burst out laughing as Baze approached them, making Baze look at him curiously. “What's so funny?”

“Nothing. All is as the Force wills it.”


End file.
